The Guardian and the Maelstrom
by HellkingUzumaki
Summary: There have always been legends of swordsmen of immense power who could do extraordinary things. What many people don't realize is that those swordsmen all belonged to the same clan. A clan that now only has two living members. Two brothers living in Konoha. What happens when they awaken those powers? M for blood Gore and Language.


**Hello everyone!**

**Yeah I know this isn't the next chapter of No-Life Prince. That's cause it's a new story the voices gave me.**

**Thus without further ado I present the product of my Milk and Thin Mint induced hallucinations.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any of the stuff they contain, If I did I wouldn't write these.**

* * *

The Third Hokage of Konohagakure was sitting in his private room concentrating on an ink painting he had been working on for almost a month when he felt a small shiver go down his spine. At the same time he heard shouting from his outer office. He figured that his secretary could handle it so he ignored it and continued.

He was about to finish his last stroke when his door crashed open allowing two chunin two charge in shouting at the tops of their lungs.

"Lord Hokage! Lord Hokage, come quickly he's at it again!" shouted one.

The old warrior sighed as he looked at his painting. The sudden interruption had startled him causing him to splatter ink over the entire canvas utterly ruining the painting. He turned and shot the two chunin an annoyed glare as he internally wept over his destroyed piece of art.

"Could you be a little more specific? There are quite a few he's in this world. So who is doing what that has caused such a commotion that you felt the need to interrupt me break?" said the old man with a weary sigh.

"It's Naruto my lord." said the second chunin in an apologetic tone. "He's defacing the images of our village's heroes, your honored predecessors, in paint! He's gone much to far this time!"

The Hokage sighed and nodded as he stood up and grabbed his hat. "Then let's go get him before he does anything even more foolish." He then mumbled to himself, "And before the other problem shows up."

As the Hokage and the chunin approached the door there was a quiet 'poof' of smoke behind them which slowly dispersed to reveal the scarred face of Iruka Umino one of the chunin teachers at the Konoha ninja academy. Seeing the Hokage was about to leave Iruka ran over to them with a somewhat amused expression.

"I take it you're off to get Naruto?" chuckled the chunin.

The old man nodded and released a long stream of pipe smoke. "Yes, apparently he managed to graffiti the entire Hokage monument without anyone noticing until now. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I believe he'll make a fine shinobi."

"As much as I agree with you it is my duty to inform you that Ichigo is at it again." Iruka replied with a sigh.

"I'm getting far too old to deal with those two." groaned the Hokage as he shook his head. "Have you ever noticed that they always cause trouble at almost the exact same times?"

Iruka laughed, "Yeah, and I'm pretty sure they do it on purpose. Maximum mayhem, minimum time."

"Considering their popularity with the villagers, it really shouldn't be all that surprising." Sarutobi sighed. "So, what is our orange haired monster up to this time?"

"Oh, you know, his usual." Iruka replied with a laugh. "Last I saw of him he was in the process of beating the shit out of about, oooh, I'd say about a dozen graduates. In all honesty, it's somewhat entertaining to watch."

"You really shouldn't admit you enjoy watching the fights." commented the old leader.

"Hey, if it's true, why should I lie?" Iruka retorted.

The Hokage snorted, "Be that as it may, which one do you want to handle?"

Iruka frowned in thought for a moment before answering. "Well, my wallet isn't quite full enough to deal with Ichigo, so I'll take Naruto."

The Hokage's expression became pained. "So you're sticking me with Ichigo and his hospital bills while you take Naruto and his Ramen bill?"

"I've found that if you give Naruto a limit before you order you can keep his order size down fairly well. Ichigo's bills are always huge no matter what. So unless you'd like to give me a raise, I'll take Naruto." the chunin replied defensively. "Besides, I want to have a talk with him about something."

"You know, I really hate it when someone your age can out logic me. It makes me feel old." The Hokage sighed as he extended a hand to Iruka who quickly grasped and shook once.

"Good luck." said both warriors with small pained smiles.

* * *

Iruka found his target relatively quickly. In all honesty it wasn't all that hard to find Naruto. After all he was hanging by a rope in front of the village's largest landmark with a bucket of paint and a paint brush. The fact that there was also a large crowd gathered on the streets below him yelling and hollering at him didn't make it any harder either. Adding to that was the simple fact that the kid was in the process of laughing loudly and yelling right back at his tormenters as he continued to paint.

However the moment Iruka joined the crowd Naruto seemed to panic. He began to climb straight up the rope with a speed that many chunin lacked the strength to achieve. Unfortunately for him when he reached the top he was greeted by the sight of two sandaled feet. One of which was tapping patiently.

"Hello Naruto, fancy meeting you here." Iruka commented with a sickly sweet smile plastered across his face.

Naruto looked up at his teacher with his paint smeared face and a nervous grin. "Uh, hi Iruka-sensei, heh heh. I'm in trouble again aren't I?"

Iruka nodded and kept his sickly sweet smile on. "Like you wouldn't believe! So will you come quietly or will I have to tie you up and carry you back to the academy?"

* * *

Across town the Hokage had also found his target. Again it wasn't really all that hard for a shinobi of his caliber. All he had to do was follow the sounds of a fist fight. Not to mention the trails of blood drops on the ground, or the battered or unconscious Genin lying scattered throughout the alleyways. After a short period of walking he found his target in the process of knocking out a Genin almost half again his size and probably two years older with a well placed uppercut to the chin. Two or three other Genin were about to counter-attack when the Hokage appeared from the shadows sending them scurrying off.

The target remained in a fighting stance for a minute or two more until it was obvious his assailants weren't going to return. He relaxed a bit until the Hokage cleared his throat quite loudly right next to the boys ear.

"Good day Ichigo. Out for a peaceful afternoon stroll are we?" commented the Hokage with obvious sarcasm.

"Hey old man. Watcha doing out here?" Ichigo retorted as he turned around and folded his arms across his chest. A tight scowl formed on his bruised and somewhat bloody face.

"Looking to take you back to class, whether you want to or not." replied the old man.

* * *

Ten minutes later Iruka was leaning against his desk looking intently at the two young boys roped back to back who were sitting on the floor in front of him. One wore a black t-shirt with an orange skull image and tan cargo shorts along with a pair of open toed sandals. The other wore a gray jacket, a white t-shirt with a black skull and dark blue jeans. They were Naruto and Ichigo and Naruto Kurosaki, and this was not the first time they had found themselves in this position.

The two brothers were rather famous in and around Konoha. First off they were twins, something almost unheard of within the ninja population. Upon first glance no one would ever think they were twins as they looked quite a bit different. Ichigo was rather tall for his age standing around five and a half feet tall. His limbs were long and lithe while his face was sharply angled. Naruto, on the other hand wasn't even five feet in height. Beyond his height Naruto was quite similarly built. The one part of their looks that indicated they were related was their hair which was a strange reddish blonde, almost orange in color. Beyond that they were also the worst troublemakers Konoha had seen in a great many years, and there wasn't a single person in the entire village who didn't know it.

Naruto was known to the villagers as 'Konoha's prank Master'. Many people, civilians and ninja alike, had horrible nightmares about his orange skull symbol, mostly because he had left an image of it at the site of every prank he had ever pulled, which was to say it showed up a lot. In fact his pranking was so widespread that cleaning up the messes his pranks left behind had been made a D-ranked mission several years ago. The really sad part was that thus far he had managed to prank every single civilian in the village at least once. He had even managed to prank many of the veteran ANBU agents as well as the Hokage. Thankfully his pranks were never malicious in nature, or he might have been ranked as a wanted child.

Ichigo on the other hand refused to have anything to do with his brothers pranks; he was more known for his fists. Due to his hair ,which he never hid or dyed unlike his brother who often used his goggles or a bandana to hide his hair, Ichigo was almost constantly teased or bullied. Of course there were other reasons for the abuse, but he didn't know that. Unfortunately for his abusers he had an incredibly short temper. When he reached his limit he would attack anyone in the immediate vicinity. If he was anyone but himself this wouldn't be much of a problem, but Ichigo was a born fighter, capable of fighting even high-Genins if he was angry enough, and he was never afraid to prove his skills with a quick demonstration.

At the moment of course they were bickering back and forth over who was the bigger idiot but Iruka knew that to be an act. They didn't like to show it, but they actually cared about each other quite a bit. It was a somewhat unknown fact that anyone who messed with Naruto usually wound up meeting Ichigo's fists shortly thereafter, and anyone who messed with Ichigo would wind up as the target of one of Naruto's pranks. They were very protective of each other even if they didn't like to admit it.

There was one last thing that made the two similar to each other but different from everyone else in the village. They both carried swords with them at all times. Now this wasn't entirely unheard of, after all many ninja of the village used swords, but the brothers never used them, they just had them. Naruto had a ninjato that's sheath was strapped horizontally across the small of his back. Ichigo had a two and a half foot straight sword that he carried diagonally across his back. What was even stranger is that both boys had had their swords for as long as they could remember. Considering the fact that they weren't from any clan of Konoha the fact they had these blades was very strange indeed.

Iruka has jolted out of his thoughts as Naruto and Ichigo had somehow escaped their bonds and were about ten seconds from starting a fist fight. Unfortunately the rest of the class was actually egging the two on. With a groan Iruka stood up, walked over and bashed both boys on the head with his fists causing them both to fall to the ground rubbing their newly acquired lumps.

"Would you two please stop fighting! For the love of Kami, you two are almost as bad as Gai and Kakashi!" Iruka sighed.

"Don't get mad at me he started it!" Naruto said as he pointed at his brother.

"How the hell did I start it? You're the one who called me a dandelion, fur face!" Ichigo retorted. Fur face was a brotherly jibe at Naruto's whisker marks.

"I don't have fur, their birth marks! You don't see me teasing you about the marks behind your ears!" Naruto angrily retorted.

"Yeah, 'cause they don't make me look like an idiot!" Ichigo shot back.

Both boys got up off the ground and were about to start fighting again. Once more though, Iruka's fists sent the warring brothers back to the floor.

"I don't care who started it, just understand that I will be the one to finish it." Iruka sighed.

He then heard a great amount a snickering and chuckling from the rest of the class. If he had to guess he would guess that they were doing so in reaction to seeing the two beaten up. This ticked Iruka off to no end.

He then used his patented 'Big-Head' genjutsu to silence the class. "SHUT THE HELL UP!" he roared. He sighed as he hated to do what he was about to do. "As the Kurosaki brothers felt it necessary to spend the entire morning screwing around, we will be reviewing the art of transformation today. You two are up first!"

* * *

That evening Iruka found himself sitting on top of the Hokage monument watching Naruto as he cleaned all the paint from his prank off the monument. Ichigo had tagged along as well, simply because he was bored and didn't feel like going back to their apartment alone. So far the three had been at the monument for over three hours, and they were rapidly approaching the end of the fourth. All this spare time had given Ichigo the opportunity to fall asleep in the bend of a nearby tree branch.

Iruka looked down at Naruto who was sitting on a small rope seat at he slowly rubbed off the paint. "Could you pick up the pace a little? Neither one of us can go home until all the paint is cleaned off, and I'm hungry."

Naruto looked up at his teacher with an angry scowl. "I'm going as fast as I can!" He then mumbled to himself. "It's not like there is anyone at home worrying about me coming home."

After a moment Iruka started to speak again in a very cautious tone. "Well…how about this. When you finish, I'll buy you a bowl of Ramen from Ichiraku's. Only one though, I need some money for my rent."

Naruto's face lit up from excitement as his arms became a blur. "All right, Ramen! Talk about a motivation!"

Actually he had shouted so loud he startled Ichigo into waking up and simultaneously falling out of the tree he had been sleeping in.

* * *

The next day Naruto found himself sitting on a rope swing suspended from a tree in front of the academy building. Both he and Ichigo had failed the Genin exams for the third time. Ichigo was off on the academy's training grounds beating the stuffing out of some of the practice dummies. Naruto though just sat and did all he could to keep himself from crying as he watched all the proud parents pick up their happy graduates..

He could see all the dark glares aimed in his direction but he had been dealing with those for years. He didn't let them faze him anymore, it just led to more pain.

Though seeing the Hokage and Iruka talking to each other by the academy entrance, that did hurt. The two men he considered to be the closest people to family he had beyond Ichigo were right nearby but weren't even looking at him. That was a hurt he couldn't suppress. So he got up to start the walk back to his apartment when he saw another one of the academy teachers walking towards him.

"Hey Naruto, how are you doing?" asked the chunin.

"I'd be a lot better if Iruka-sensei would let us pass the stupid test. I bet Ichigo would be a lot happier to." Naruto replied glumly. "Mizuki-sensei, why is Iruka-sensei so hard on us?"

"He's not doing it to be mean Naruto. He just sees a lot of himself in you two and he doesn't want you guys to graduate without being fully prepared." Mizuki replied gently.

Naruto looked at the chunin with a curious expression. "Iruka-sensei sees himself in us? Why, we aren't anything like him?"

Mizuki nodded. "True, he isn't much like you guys anymore, but he was when he was younger."

"Really?"

"Really. Like you guys he grew up without any parents, so he was always looking for any type of attention he could get. So he became a trouble maker, the class clown. He was always looking for someone to tell him that they liked him." Mizuki replied quietly. "You two remind him of what he was like. So he is trying to make sure that you succeed more than he ever did. He's just doing what he thinks is right, what he thinks will help you succeed."

"Thanks sensei, I guess I feel a little better now. I still wish there was some way we could pass." Naruto said with a sad smile.

A cruel gleam suddenly appeared in Mizuki's eye. "Well if you're that serious about it, I think I can tell you about the secret test."

"There's another test?" Naruto asked in amazement.

"Yup, but it's a secret." Mizuki replied. "Now here's what you need to do…"

* * *

Four hours later Naruto and Ichigo were running as fast as they could through the forests outside of Konoha. Ichigo had a large and rather ornate looking scroll strapped across his back. After a few minutes of running the two came to a halt in a small clearing with a n equally small cabin. Ichigo pulled the scroll of his back and set it on the ground with a small grunt of exertion. It was a lot heavier than it looked.

Ichigo sighed loudly as he began to open and unroll the scroll. "I still don't believe that worked. I mean seriously, that should not have been that easy."

Naruto crossed his arms and allowed his voice to take on a mocking tone. "You underestimate the power of the Sexy no Jutsu! You underestimate it greatly! It has never failed in battle and it never will, it is the mightiest jutsu ever invented!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and debated smacking his brother upside the head, just to shut him up. "It's not that powerful, you just panicked and that was the first thing you thought of, which is pretty sad. What we really underestimated was how much of a pervert the old man really is. Anyway that 'ultimate jutsu' of yours will only ever work on perverts so it really isn't as powerful as you seem to think it is."

"You're just jealous that you can't use it cause I created it and it's to epic for you to use!" Naruto huffed as he came to stand next to his brother.

Ichigo scowled up at Naruto."I can use it, I just don't want to. It's a stupid move, heck it's not even really a move, you came up with it by accident!" he shouted.

"You really should just admit you are jealous of my awesomeness!" Naruto commented as he crouched down to look at the scroll totally oblivious to the murderous glare Ichigo was shooting at him.

Ichigo was about to make a comeback when something on the scroll caught his eye. "…The hell is that?" he mumbled to himself as he unrolled the scroll further.

Hearing his brother's exclamation Naruto took a closer look at the part of the scroll Ichigo seemed to be staring at. Most of the jutsus on the scroll were just written down like anything else would be. A few had diagrams as part of them or warnings or similar things but one was entirely different. This one was written in a spiral pattern around the image of a katana.

Directly above the spiraling words was the techniques name, the 'true blade release' technique. According to the description, which took them several minutes to read due to the way it was written, if they used this technique and channeled their chakra into their swords in a very specific way the swords would gain incredible special abilities.

Ichigo whistled softly in appreciation. "Oh man, we are so learning that one. We'd finally actually have a good use for these things."

In all reality neither one of them actually knew how to use their swords as anything more than big knives. Very few people knew it, but they only carried them for emotional reasons. Once when they had asked the old man about who their parents were he said that he would tell them eventually when they were older. He had also said that their swords had been made by their mother before they were born. So the brothers kept the swords as a way a reminding themselves that their parents had loved them.

Naruto looked at his brother with watery eyes. "But I wanted to learn that shadow clone technique!" he whined.

Ichigo stared and blinked a few times. "Bro, we suck at clone techniques. Neither one of us has ever gotten a fully formed clone."

Naruto returned the stare with a blank and somewhat confused expression. "Right, we suck at clones, so if we learn a really hard clone technique that'll show how awesome we are!"

Ichigo repressed his sudden urge to slap Naruto upside the head. "If we can't even do the most basic clone technique what the heck makes you think we could pull off a technique that advanced?"

"Uh…optimism, perseverance and hard work?"

Ichigo face-palmed. "Look, if we get this sword thing down then we'll take a look at that clone technique. Work for you?"

Naruto snorted and pulled his ninjato from its sheathe. "Fine, let's do this thing already."

A minute or two later both of the brothers had their swords lying on their laps while their hands gripped their sheathes and hilts. After holding this position for a moment or two a nearly transparent mist began to appear around the boys as the built up all the chakra they could muster. Suddenly the mist around the boys lit up as they shoved all the chakra they could into their swords causing them to glow. Unfortunately for them their massive chakra surge did not go unnoticed.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Iruka was standing on a tree branch about ten feet above the brother's heads. He had expected to find them laughing or goofing around. He had expected this to just be some huge prank. Instead the brothers were crouching down next to the scroll and seemed to be studying it intently while having a heated discussion. Their voices were too subdued for him to make out their words do he dropped down and tried to sneak closer.

Unfortunately Naruto also chose that moment to turn around in a huff. When he saw his sensei though his small scowl morphed into a full faced smile.

"There you are Captain Nosebleed! I finally found you!" Naruto said with a laugh.

Ichigo stood up and once more smacked his brother's head. "We haven't moved, so technically, he found us, twit."

"Well I was using my senses to search for him!" Naruto said as he crossed his arms.

Ichigo just rolled his eyes and turned to look expectantly at Iruka.

Iruka returned the look with a strange expression somewhere between bewilderment and embarrassment. "What are you two doing out here with that scroll?"

"We're training of course, what does it look like we're doing, taking a nap? For a supposed chunin you aren't that observant sensei." Ichigo commented flatly.

Iruka ignored Ichigo's sting and asked, "Training? What on earth are you training for?"

Ichigo blinked. "We're training do we can graduate of course, what else would we possibly train for? How did you become a chunin?" he replied somewhat incredulously.

Naruto nodded quickly as he supported his brother's statement. "Yeah, Mizuki-sensei said that if we could get this scroll and learn one of the techniques on it, you'd have to let us graduate!"

Iruka's mind was sent reeling from this revelation. _'Mizuki had them steal the scroll? What's going on here? Mizuki is a loyal chunin of Konoha, he would never do something like this? But then again, why would they lie?'_

Any further thoughts he was going to have were cut short as he heard the distinctive whistle of incoming weapons. He spun quickly as he attempted to determine where the weapons were coming from. Unfortunately he completed his turn just in time for six kunai and a dozen shuriken to implant themselves in his torso. As he fell to the ground from the impacts and the pain he saw Mizuki standing in a nearby tree with a wicked smile plastered across his face.

Seeing Mizuki in the tree and Iruka now laying on the ground Naruto'eads h whipped back and forth between the two chunin as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Hey, what's going on around here!?" he shouted as he shot his brother a panicky look.

Ichigo returned the look with wide eyes as he shook his head. He had no idea what was going on either.

Iruka hauled himself to his feet before turning his head to shout at the brothers. "Run you idiots! Mizuki's a traitor! He's after the scroll make sure you keep it out of his hands!"

The brothers wanted to run from fear but at the same time they didn't want to abandon Iruka. He was one of their few friends, and someone who abandons a friend is a monster. As a result of their conflicting emotions they just stood there somewhat obliviously.

Seeing this Mizuki laughed loudly as he leapt down from the tree. As he stood back up to face the brothers and Iruka he reached behind his back and pulled out two massive shuriken which he held in both hands.

"Please Iruka, why on earth would I go after that scroll?" Mizuki sneered as he continued to advance. "Yeah I could get good money from selling it to one of the other villages, but I know of something that will pay even better than that, and make me a bigger hero than the fourth Hokage ever was!"

Iruka paled as he realized what exactly Mizuki was talking about. "No! Don't say it it's-"

"Illegal, yeah I don't care about the Hokage and his laws." Mizuki said nonchalantly as he chucked another kunai into Iruka's gut.

Mizuki finally stopped about ten feet from the brothers and their injured sensei. A wicked smirk appeared on his face as he began to speak. "I'm gonna let you guys in ob a little secret that everybody knows, everyone except you that is. The nine-tailed fox isn't dead. Even the Yondaime with all his powers, couldn't beat the demon. Instead you used a seal to rip the beasts soul in half and then sealed those halves into human forms."

Neither boy had a clue what Mizuki was talking about. After all even the old man said that the nine-tails was defeated and killed by the Yondaime. Even so they both felt sick to their stomachs, like they knew something bad was going to happen.

Mizuki chuckled at the boy's expressions. "You wanna know the other part of the secret? Haven't you two ever wondered why everyone hates you both so much? Why nobody wants to be around you or be seen near you? Why it is that everyone goes to such great lengths to ignore you both and make your lives so difficult? It's because they know something that you two are to stupid to realize."

Iruka tried to speak, he tried to stop what was about to happen right in front of him, but the pain from his wounds was to great to overcome.

Mizuki's grin morphed into an evil sneer. "It's because we all know what you freaks really are deep down inside. We all know that that you two are al that remains of the once mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

The brothers looked at each other with horror and pain filled eyes. Deep down they had always known that they were somehow different, that there was some intangible thing about them that set them apart. They had always hoped that whatever it was was a good thing, something that made them stronger than everybody else. To be told that they were different because they weren't even human, because they were really demons? It was a nightmare neither of them could have ever imagined even in the darkest part of their hearts.

Naruto looked at Iruka with panic-stricken eyes. Hoping, pleading, desperately that his teacher would leap up and deny what Mizuki had just said. He wanted to hear that they weren't demons or anything like that, that they were ninjas of Konoha. But Iruka remained were he was, and Naruto felt despair crash over him. He watched as that same deep crushing despair appeared in his brother's eyes.

"Don't you two worry," Mizuki commented with a dark laugh. "your troubles will soon be over. You'll be dead and I'll be the greatest hero Konoha has ever seen! Now be good little demons and hold still, I don't want this to take very long!"

He snapped one arm forward in a blur of motion sending one of the giant shuriken flying at the boys so that it would decapitate them both. Seeing their apparent deaths flying at them the brothers looked at each other with small smiles before they closed their eyes and waited for it all to end. Strangely though they never felt the shuriken bite into them. Instead all they heard was a sickening thud and a grunt of pain.

Opening their eyes they saw something that made them deeply upset. Iruka was standing in front of them with his arms outstretched and Mizuki's shuriken buried deeply in his back.

Ichigo stared at his long time teacher and friend. "Why did you save us?" he whispered.

Iruka smiled at the two boys as blood trickled down his chin in a steady stream. "Because I don't see any demons around here. I don't know what Mizuki is seeing 'cause all I see is Naruto and Ichigo Kurosaki, two of my favorite students. Students that I would lay down my life to protect, that's what I see. That's all I've ever seen."

Naruto's eyes began to water and Ichigo's face softened from it's natural scowl. Before either could respond to Iruka's declaration Mizuki interrupted them.

"What a heart warming speech from yet another demon lover." Mizuki sneered sarcastically. "Although honestly I should thank you. Since you jumped in front of my first throw I can now get three heads with one throw. Not a bad deal if I must say. Let's try this again shall we?"

With a mighty heave Mizuki threw his other shuriken. Strangely it seemed to be moving a lot more slowly than the last one did.

Almost simultaneously the brothers unsheathed their swords and stepped in front of their teacher. One thought rang through both of their minds.

'_I won't let Iruka-sensei get hurt because of me again! No one is __ever__ going to get hurt because of me ever again! I swear on my name!'_

Their swords began to hum as their auras reappeared. Time slowed to a stop as the world went white.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes to see a busy city full of tall buildings reaching up towards a clear blue sky. Yet there wasn't a single person in sight, nor could he hear any of the sounds of everyday city life. There was no one, a ghost city.

"Ah! I see you've finally come to me." said a gravelly, tired, and yet somehow commanding voice. "Quite a feat for someone so young, and so inexperienced."

Naruto turned to face the source of the voice. What he found was an old man with a long white beard and an x-shaped scar upon his forehead. The old man wore an open white haori coat over a loose set of black samurai robes. He was staring at Naruto with half-lidded eyes full of thought and emotion.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked somewhat nervously. The man before him had a presence much like that of the Hokage, he was old but no less deadly than an ANBU.

The old man replied to Naruto's question, for some reason though Naruto could see his lips moving but he couldn't hear anything being said. Seeing the look of confusion on the boy's face the old man sighed and shook his head in despair.

"It seems you still can't hear me, what a pity." he mumbled.

"Hey, old man! What are you doing here? For that matter, where is here?" Naruto said in a demanding tone.

Ancient eyes met young eyes in a duel of wills as the man replied. "I am simply here to make a decision concerning your future boy."

"Huh?"

"Let me ask you a question boy. What would you do to protect your brother? How far would you go to save him if he needed saving?" the old man queried.

Naruto responded with a tight expression. "I would do anything for my brother, he's all I have. He's too important for me to even think about losing!"

"What about that teacher of yours, Iruka? Would you be willing to go to the same lengths to save him?"

Naruto was silent for a moment. He honestly didn't know how to respond. Iruka was a friend and a teacher, but what did he mean to Naruto. Was he worth getting hurt for?

After a moment Naruto's eyes came back up to meet the old man's gaze. "Iruka is not family, he's not my brother, but I would do the same for him that I would do for Ichigo. He has helped me to many times for me not to help him." A small smile appeared. "Besides, if I didn't help him what kind of person would I be?"

A similarly small smile appeared on the old man's face as he stood up. As he did he pulled out a sheathed sword that he had been holding under his coat the whole time. "it would appear that you truly are ready for this. Take up the weapon of your ancestors and fight with honor boy."

He held the blade out to Naruto who quickly took it. As Naruto's hand touched the metal of the sheath he realized two things. First off the metal was warm to the touch, which was a little strange. Secondly he heard a small voice deep in his mind say to distinct words that he knew almost instinctively were the name of the sword.

Naruto looked back up to speak to the old man again but his world went white once more.

* * *

Ichigo groaned and sat up, as he did so his groan only intensified. He head felt like it was ringing and his whole body felt sore. He had felt worse though and soon sat up entirely and opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him was an enormous forest with trees taller than the Hokage monument stretching as far as the eye could see. He looked around, wide eyed with wonder.

"What are you doing Ichigo? Is this place truly that strange to you?" said a deep voice.

Ichigo whirled around to confront the source of the voice. He found himself looking face to face with a tall man in a tattered black robe. Yellow glasses wrapped around his face while wild black hair whipped untamed around his head.

"Who the hell are you, and what did you do with Naruto?" Ichigo shouted.

"My name is not important right now, nor is the location of your brother whom I do not posses nor know the location of." the man replied.

"Well if you don't know where he is then tell me how to get back to where I was! There is someone there who deserves a good beating." Ichigo retorted with a growl.

"I cannot help you in this matter, I'm afraid I do not know how to leave this place." The man replied offhandedly.

Ichigo scowled at the reply and began to stomp off.

"Why must you go and fight Ichigo? Has this enemy you so wish to destroy taken something from you? Or have they destroyed something you held precious? What is it that drives you to fight?" the man asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"He hasn't done anything to me." Ichigo replied tersely.

"Then why do you fight? Is it that you seek death in battle?"

"No! I only ever fight to protect others that I care about! I never fight for myself unless I have no other choice!" Ichigo roared defiantly.

The man smiled softly even as Ichigo scowled harshly. "That is good to hear. It is truly refreshing to find someone of your age who understands what people should fight for. Fighting for yourself helps only you, but fighting for others helps the world." With that said the man turned around and began walking away.

"Hey wait a minute! Who are you? What's your name!?" Ichigo called out.

The man paused and looked back over his shoulder. "What you mean 'What is your name?' You already know what my name is. The real question is whether or not you will choose to use the knowledge you have."

A look of understanding appeared on Ichigo's face. Before he could respond though, his vision turned white.

* * *

In a burst of light and sound the brothers returned to reality. Unfortunately this also meant that once more they were standing in the path of the Giant shuriken flying at them at neck height. However the moment they realized that Iruka was between themselves and the shuriken they sprang into action. Instinctively they drew their swords and jumped into the air. As they came back down they slammed their blades down on top of the shuriken driving the throwing star into the ground.

"Oh, ho ho, so the demons want to come out and play so they?" Mizuki teased with a sneer.

"We aren't here to play." Ichigo replied coldly.

"We're just here to kick your ass and go home." Naruto added.

Mizuki laughed heartily at Naruto's statement. "In your dreams you demon brats! I'm a veteran chunin while you two can't even pass the genin exam! There's no way in hell you two could ever hope to defeat me!"

Naruto smiled in an odd way. "You're probably right, the two of us can't beat you. With a little help from our friends though, we'll crush you!"

Mizuki laughed again only harder. "You don't have any friends, nobody likes you!"

"I don't remember anyone saying you knew our friends." Ichigo said in a deadly serious tone. "Though I feel they should be given proper introductions." Placing his sword in front of him so that the tip pointed at Mizuki and the blade's edge faced the ground. He then began to pump enormous amounts of chakra in to the blade causing a light blue aura to appear around both him and the sword. "Face forward, don't give an inch! Retreat and you will age be afraid and you will die! Charge forth, Zangetsu!"

A cyclone of wind suddenly erupted from the ground at Ichigo's feet as his as blazed with light. Just as suddenly as it formed the mini cyclone disappeared as a blade slashed through it. As the cyclone's wind dissipated Ichigo appeared carrying a very different looking blade. It looked to be no more than a giant kitchen knife without a handle, even though the blade itself was almost as long as Ichigo was tall, so a bit over five three.

Naruto whined a bit as he began to emanate a bronze colored aura of his own. "Oh come on Ichigo, you just had to show off didn't you? Oh well, I guess that just means it's my turn now!" He slowly swiped his ninjato through the air in front of him causing it to shimmer and distort like a heat mirage. Naruto's face became blank as he spoke. "Ignite the infinite fires of your rage, Kure Kaien!" (Hidden Flame)

The air distortion around the blade had grown worse until the sword was barely visible. When Naruto spoke the phrase though, the distortions suddenly disappeared revealing that the ninjato had lengthened to become a Kodachi that seemed to glow slightly in the fading light.

Mizuki sneered at them. "So your swords changed how they look, big deal, you still don't know how to use them. I on the other hand, do!" He drew a ninjato from a hidden sheathe on his back. He then brought it to his mouth and licked it. "You know I had this specially made for tonight. Cost me a fortune, but it'll be worth it to see the expressions on your faces as I carve you up!"

He charged with his blade held to his side ready to thrust into their guts. He aimed for Naruto first thinking that he would be the easier target. After all Icigo was the fighter of the two, Naruto was just a prankster. In his rage and thirst for blood though he forgot that Naruto was the one who had been successfully outrunning jonin and ANBU for years. He wasn't as good of a fighter, nor was he as strong as his brother, but he was a lot faster.

Seeing Mizuki's rather obvious intent Naruto leapt skyward a good six feet allowing Mizuki to pass directly underneath him. Mizuki stumbled as his target had suddenly disappeared. Seeing the stumble Ichigo took a chance and swung his blade with all his might at his opponents throat. Mizukis bent back at the waist allowing Zangetsu to whistle by just inches above him. He then suddenly flipped back as Naruto's blade hit the ground right where his enemie's stomach had been only moments before.

Mizuki tried to go back on the offensive but was forced to leap to the side as Naruto lunged at him at high speed. As Naruto went flying by the traitorous chunin was forced to jump over Zangetsu as Ichigo tried to bisect him. In flipped in mid-air hoping to land a heavy blow on Ichigo's now exposed back. Naruto appeared out of nowhere and deflected the blade aimed at his brothers back. Unfortunately he was unable to do anything as Mizuki continued his flip and slammed his heel into the blondes face sending him flying back into a tree. The impact knocked him senseless as Mizuki landed in front of Ichigo.

The chunin attacked with multiple high speed thrusts hoping to find a hole in Ichigo's defense and skewer him. Every time the ninjato darted forward though, it met the flat of Ichigo's massive blade which he was using as a shield. Seeing his first tactic fail Mizuki changed strategies and began swinging his blade forcing Ichigo to adopt a more fluid and looser defense. Suddenly Mizuki's left hand snapped forward shooting a kunai into Ichigo's shoulder and another into his hip.

The orange haired teen gasped at the sudden pain which caused him to stumble a bit. Mizuki smirked as he drove a powerful left-handed uppercut punch deep into Ichigo's gut. As he doubled over from the pain Ichigo swung wildly trying to get some space between himself and the chunin, unfortunately he missed and managed to bury the first six inches of his blade into the ground. Seeing his opponents blade was now immobilized Mizuki's smirk became an evil grin as he closed in for the kill.

That same grin quickly became a pained grimace as Ichigo returned Mizuki's punch with a mighty spin kick using Zangetsu's hilt as his launch point. The force of the kick was great enough to send the chunin flying back through the air.

"Naruto! Incoming!" Ichigo called out.

Hearing his brother's voice calling for him Naruto shook his head and snapped back to reality. In that instant he saw two rather strange things. Firstly his kodachi was lying in a circle of charred and smoking grass. Secondly was Mizuki's rapidly approaching back. In a flurry of movement Naruto reacted. He snatched up his sword, jumped on to the side of the tree he had been lying against and then used it as a springboard from which to body slam Mizuki's flying form. Said traitor was so shocked by the impact and the subsequent direction change that he dropped his sword. He then crashed into the ground with surprising force sending him tumbling for several yards. When he shakily stood back up he found both brothers facing him with determined expressions and blades ready.

He coughed up a bit of blood as he readied himself to continue the fight. Ichigo raised one eyebrow in surprise but chose not to voice his thoughts. Naruto of course was not so restrained.

"Dang Mizuki, are you an idiot? Seriously you can't beat us both, just give up already!" Naruto exclaimed in a shocked tone.

"S-Shut up you stupid little brat! I'm a chunin, there's no way you can beat me! I won't stop until I'm dead, and you brats wouldn't dare kill me!" Mizuki cackled madly.

Ichigo replied with an obvious smirk. "We may not have the guts, but we definitely have the swords."

The brothers glanced at each other and nodded once before closing their eyes in concentration. When they opened them again their auras reappeared and focused around the edges of their swords. Ichigo's blue aura seemed to be whipping back and forth on Zangetsu's edge like a stream. Naruto's bronzy orange aura seemed to leap and dance along Kure Kaien's edge. Once more the brothers nodded to each other, and then abruptly vanished.

Just as abruptly as the two had vanished Mizuki felt a massive pain erupt from all over his chest and upper abdomen. He slowly fell backwards as time seemed to slow due to him beginning to black out from the pain. As he fell though, he was able to see behind himself. There he saw Naruto and Ichigo standing side by side, their sword arms outstretched, like they had just delivered a strike to some unseen opponent, and their blades glistening with crimson droplets. Then the chunin's body hit the ground causing him to gasp as pain lanced through him, then he saw only darkness.

The brothers heard the soft 'thud' of Mizuki's body hitting the ground but didn't turn around to look. Simultaneously they shook the blood of their blades and resheathed them causing them to return to their original shapes. They then spun around and instinctively reached for their swords as a twig behind them snapped. Just as quickly they relaxed as they saw Iruka emerge from the forest. Their chunin-sensei was bloody and appeared to be in a great deal of pain but seemed otherwise fine.

Iruka just stared at the two brothers with open mouthed amazement. Standing before him were the two worst troublemakers Konoha had ever seen. They hadn't even graduated from the academy due to their inability to use some of the most basic jutsu. Yet they had just defeated a high ranked and highly experienced chunin without a single major injury. Even more amazing was that they had done so in a spectacular fashion.

Changing the object of his gaze Iruka stared at Mizuki's chest, or what was left of it anyway. Two huge gashes crossed the entirety of the downed chunins chest, neither could be considered normal sword wounds. One gash was incredibly wide but not very deep and looked ragged at the edges, like someone had hit the chunin with a chainsaw or something of that nature. The other was thin but had cut deep enough to reveal ribs, yet it didn't bleed much. The area around the second gash was black and steaming slightly, this, Iruka realized, was no sword wound, it was a massive burn. Once more the sensei shook his head in amazement as the brothers walked towards him. Ichigo had Mizuki's Hitai-Ate in his hand.

"Why didn't you run away like I told you to?" Iruka asked as they stopped in front of him.

"You and the old man have looked out for us our whole lives. We couldn't let you get hurt because of us, so we returned the favor." Ichigo replied with a small smile.

"Yeah, you take care of us and we take care of you, that's how it works." Naruto quickly added.

Iruka smiled, the Hokage was right, these two would go far as shinobi. "Ichigo could I have Mizuki's Hita-Ate please?"

Ichigo seemed puzzled by his sensei's request but quickly complied.

"Now I want both of you to close your eyes for a minute."

They did. After a moment they both felt a small weight settle on their foreheads causing them to open their eyes to see Iruka's smiling face.

"Congratulations graduates!"

* * *

**Well how's that for a second story?**

**Also let me know if you caught the little Lord of the Rings reference I threw in just for fun. It's just one line, but it is there I assure you.**

**No-Life Prince 4 should be up in about a week or so, so no complaining.**

**Please review, and tell me how badly I'm doing.**


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